Rakuten and China's JD.com to tie up for unmanned delivery service in Japan

Major Japanese and Chinese e-commerce companies Rakuten Inc. and JD.com Inc. said Thursday they will tie up and commercialize an unmanned delivery service in Japan to save the time, cost and labor involved in parcel shipments in the wake of the explosive growth of online shopping. Rakuten will employ JD.com's drones and unmanned ground vehicles, which the Chinese firm already operates in commercial services in its home country, as it prepares to introduce autonomous delivery in Japan. The Tokyo-based firm has been conducting experiments and trial services of autonomous parcel delivery since 2016, seeing it as an effective solution to the "last mile" issue of cutting the time and cost of shipping packages from transportation hubs to consumers' doors. JD.com, also known as Jingdong, launched the world's first commercial drone delivery in 2016 in China and is aiming to expand its service abroad. JD.com Vice President Xiao Jun said there are "many opportunities" in Japan for drone deliveries in mountainous areas and remote islands.